Improvement in metallic railroad-cars



No. 30,426. PATENTED OCT. 16, 1860.

J. A. ROEBLING. RAILROAD GAR.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE...

JOHN A. ROEBLING, or TRENTON, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN METALLIC RAILROAD-CARS Specification forming part ofLetters Patent No; 30,426, dated October 16. [850, v

To all whom; it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN AUGUSTUS ROE- BLING, civil engineer, ofTrenton, in the county of Mercer, in the State of New Jersey, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in the Construction of IronRailroad-Cars, of'

which the following is a full and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, which make a part of this specification,and in which- Figurel represents an elevation of the outside of aportion of ,the body of an iron passenger railroad-car made upon myimproved plan. Fig. 2 represents a horizontal section of the same, takenthrough the lower part of it, showing the curved and plain panels andthe space between them on artenlarged scale. Fig. 3 shows the verticalsection of the side of a car.

The con struction of rail road-ears in Such manner that they shall bewholly or in great part formed of'iron or other suitable metal hasforalong time been consideredas a very desirable end to be attained andvarious plans have been proposed; but to obtain the requisite strengthwithout too'great increase of weight and at a moderate cost-has provedto be a difficult matter. The more framing of an iron or metallicv cardoes not accomplish all that is desired, although by itself it may be agreat improvement. If wooden panels are inclosed in such a. frame, theyadd but little to the strength by acting as braces unless they are madeof such thickness aste add'materially to the weight. Vood, being exposedto shrinkage, should, for this reason alone, never form an essentialpart of an iron car. Railroad-cars are constantly subjected tosidestrainsv and blows, and these, especially in cases of accidents,will in a great ineasure have to be resisted by the pan eling,

which, if made of wood, must be very heavy, and even then may, whenbroken into splint- .s, become a great source of danger to thepassengers. A panel of flat sheet metal has been proposed as asubstitute for one of'wood, and this has the further advantage ofacting, when properly secured, as a brace to the framing, the tensilestrength of the sheet resisting the elongation of the diagonals of theframe. Such a panel, adding strength to'thc structure, will in so" farhe an advantage. Its

ceiling.

resistance to lateral blows, however, will not be-materially greaterthan that of a wooden panel, unless its weight is much increased, as

a single flat sheetisnot the'most advantageou s form for resistin gblowsdirected perpendicularly against it; but ,a. single panel of sheet metalis open to another objection. The great conducting-power of metal wouldoffer but little protection against outside extremes of temperature.Inaddition to this, to form a recess or. cavity for lowering thewindowsash would require additional-inside work. A mode of, constructionhas been proposed, which in part meets these objectionshut is open toanother of a serious character. This plan consists in fastening twosetsof plates--' oiie'on the inside, the other on theout-side to a heavymetal frame. lain not aware that this plan has, ever been carried out,for its adoptioirinvolvc's. a la rge expenditure of material and labor,which even then. does not give all the advantages required. i

To meet the difficulties above cited, I'have made my inventionnvhieh Iwill now proceed to describe,.as applied to the construction of -thesides of a railroad-car as well as of its roof.

The frame of'the car consists of uprighisR and longitudinal pieces L,whichmay he of the U I ,L or any other suitable shape ofsection placedat right angles, so as to leave open rectangular spaces to be filled bypanels, windows, or ventilators. Between the upright'sand thelongitudinal pieces flat sheets 5, of iron, are to be placed, formingflat panels, covering the whole of the sides, with the exception of thewindow and door openings. Sheets 'lnay be used as long as they can berolled. This same fiat sheet is to be continued over the ear to formitsinner roof: or Between the window-openings in the sides narrowplates-may be used, running up and down and riveted to the long plateswhich run lengthwise of the car below the windowopenings. els are to bearranged, so that their concavity is toward the fiatpanel, and theiredges extending far enough under the uprights may be secured to them andto the fiat panels by rivets. The relative position of the various partsbeing such as has been described, it is evident that if punched atproper intervals each single rivet-will atoncc secure the flange,

Between the uprights curved pan of the U-iron, the flat and the curvedpanel.

At the intersection of the uprights and of the longitudinal piecesasingle rivet will unite them both with the intervening curved and flatpanels. In this way all the importantparts of the structure are unitedin the most economical and most efiectivemanner. The curvature ofthepanels may be varied to snit'the' requirements of each particularcase. While their vertical edges areso bent as to fit against the flatpaneLIprefer to re tain and secure the curve of vthe horizontal edges byintroducing corresponding strips of wood inside, to which thecurved'sheet is fastened by wood-screws or rivet's. To in -v creasestill more the stiffnessof the curved panels and also theirresistance,in case of an upsetting or rolling of the car, I further pro--pose to introduce another horizontal wooden stri I in the center 91;the sheet, and also a ver "'tica *onesecured by wood-screws.

' Where windows and ventilators are to be .made, corresponding openingsare to be left in both thefiat and curved panels.

I prefer the employmentof a drop-window with 0hr tains and withoutshutters. A recess or receptacle is then to be formed within the lowerpart of' the curved panel by cutting out the wooden strips, so that thesash may slide freely between.

of only half the width as those in the sides,

and; I doublethe number of ribs. The latter may have the cross-sectionof a IL, or be of any other suitable-shape.

Fig. 3 'shows' how the roof and the side of a.

.car may be united by an angle-iron in a simple and efiective manner.The width'of the curved panels in the roof being reduced, no woodenstrips are needed inside, except at the eaves or edgesof the roof, wherethe intervening space between the flat'and curved sheets :shonld' beclosed by aboard. closely fitting in and secured by wood-screws.

By the combination of parts as above described, and which-constitutes myinvention, the great end is accomplished of increasing immensely theresistance, spring, and elasticity of the car. Each curved panel in theside's aswell as in the roof formsa spring, and

by its elastic power will greatly diminish the danger of collisions,while its arched form "vastly increases its strengthtcresist the ef:fect of blows. In'case of an upsetting orroll- 'ing down embankments androcky shapes the curved panels will receive all the blows, and

wilLthus'protect the lives of' the passengers "inside. In addition theseimportant' ad vantages there are those already mentionednamely, theformation OfjhOHQW walls and of ahollow roof filledwith air,- whichserves as a non-conductor of heat and cold, the better protectionagainst sparks and fire from the outside, and also the great facility ofmaking receptacles for drop-windows without additional material or work.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is'- r The combination of thelongitudinal pieces ribs, or uprights,straps and plates, which constitnte the framework of the sides and roofof a metallic railroad-car with curved and fiat panels in such manner astoleave a partial space between the panels, and thus forming anon-conductingwallandaffording a reeeptacle for windowsashe's whenrequired, while thecurved and fiat panels may be'unite" with any part ofthe framing with which they come in contact by one single rivet.

JOHN A. RQEBLING.

Witnesses: r

WASH. A. RoEBLINe, CnAnLEsSWAN.

